Miss. AG: Most Barbour pardons fail notice test

(Reuters) - More than three-quarters of the prisoners and ex-convicts pardoned by former Mississippi governor Haley Barbour in his final days in office did not meet the publication requirements of the state's constitution, Mississippi's attorney general said Thursday.

"The attorney general's updated review of the 203 purported pardons (on the list as published by the secretary of state) shows that 156 have not met the publication requirements of the state constitution," Attorney General Jim Hood said in an e-mailed statement.

Barbour sparked controversy with the pardons, most of which were granted on his final day in office last week. Among those on the list were four convicted murderers and an armed robber who had worked at the governor's mansion on prison work release.

Hood last week sought and received an injunction against those and others on the clemency list on the grounds that their pardons had not met a state constitutional requirement that a notice be published in the community where the crimes were committed. A hearing on the injunctions is scheduled for Monday.